Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Cheerleaders

This is a really well-crafted YA murder mystery and I thought it was very effective to have narratives set in two different timelines.

In the current timeline, the main character, Monica, is struggling not only with a personal crisis, but the upcoming 5-year anniversary of her sister’s death that was determined to be a suicide. Monica has never been convinced that her popular and happy cheerleader sister, who was planning a bright future, would end her own life. The fact that immediately preceding her sister’s death, four other girls on the same cheerleading squad had died from either a car accident or as a murder victim leads Monica to suspect there are a lot of unanswered questions that the police, including her beloved stepfather, have ignored. Monica accidentally uncovers some items hidden away in her house and this sets her off on a personal quest to find out if there’s any connection between the cheerleaders’ deaths.

As for the secondary timeline, peppered in between Monica’s chapters are flashbacks that reveal what was happening in other characters lives five years earlier, including the cheerleaders and their friends. This insight helps the reader connect to the victims and become more invested in seeing Monica succeed with her amateur sleuthing.

The story moves along at a fast pace, even though there’s minimal action. Most of the book is character development and conversation. There’s definitely satisfaction when Monica gets some insight through snooping and research, which really is as much as can realistically be expected since she’s just a teenager with a bicycle and not Magnum, P.I.!

The author, Kara Thomas, includes difficult and complex issues into the story, such as substance abuse, bullying, body image, abortion, statutory rape, and suicide. I feel these topics are handled well, but get lost in the story as it progresses. For example, one character seems to be headed down a path leading to misuse of prescription pain meds, but gets distracted and never voices another craving or complaint about the pain that was causing them to take up to 4 pills at a time. This is just a side note though because I didn’t get too hung up on this oversight and stayed glued to the progression of story regardless.

Overall, a very good book. I listened to the audio and really like the narrator, Phoebe Strole, who did a great job voicing teen and adult characters, as well as different temperaments and emotions. Her voice was well suited to this book.

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makenna_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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gissellellamas's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. It wasn't as predictable as most mysteries I've read, so I appreciated that. I loved Ginny as a character and Monica coming to terms with what happened was really nice to see in the end. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants something more tense and mysterious. Just please check TW; there are a lot of them!

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nerdybookshelff's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Monica is the sister of Jen, one of the five cheerleaders who died five years ago. Ever since then, there have been no more cheerleaders in SunnyBrook. There are 5 families forever scarred from these deaths with constant reminders everywhere. When Monica uncovers that the police might not have caught the right culprit, she goes out of her way to set things right, for her sister and her friends.

Spoiler <I went into this thinking it would be a typical highschool -murderer-comes-back-again-to-finish-what-they-started situation. However, it is just Monica uncovering the past> I did finish it 24 hours but it fell kind of flat for me unfortunately. I guessed the culprit correct and had a feeling about the last chapter but was surprised about a certain characters involvement in the last chapter.

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nicoleherz's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

High school mystery, plot twist, revisiting old trauma

Pretty good story, didn't see this twist coming the way I did with Thomas's other book That Weekend

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goodnightngo's review against another edition

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3.0

Solid book yet again. I liked the imagery of describing the main character’s surroundings.

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